Torpedo.



UNITED STATES PATENT- OFFIC.

CLELAND-DAFYIS, OIE THE UNITED STATES NAVY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNEASSIGNMENTS,.

T0l NATIONAL TORPEDO COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., `A CORPORATION OFMAINE.

trortrirno.V

Application filed July 15, 1907. Serial No. 383,814.

Tov all whom 'it may concern: i

Be it known that I, CLELANU'DAVIS, a

-lieutenant-commander U. S. Navy, a citizen of the United States,residing at Vashing-- ton, in the District of Columbia,vhave in.

vented certain. new and useful Improve-- ments in Torpedoes;'and I dohereby de-` clare the following to be a full, clear, and

exact descriptionof the invention, such as' will enable others skilledinthe art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to torpedoes and particularly to that class .oftorpedoes that are propelled or under the sur to strike the vessel orother object attacked below the water line.

- The object of my invention isv to create renter disablin etici-,tsthan is now os-- sible with the present torpedoes, and especially whenthe ship attacked is provided with armor or other protecting devices,belowthe water line.

`As is well known, the eiect'ofmodern.I

torpedoes 'on vessels provided with aconsiderable -protection of thin,or more or less lthick armor plating'below the water line, is

To this end my invention consistsin pro- Y viding an ordinary torpedoshell with a sunsimply to blow a hole therethrough. This hole when thereisno armor protection may be very large, and does injury to the vesselby the admission of water. If, however, there is a thin armorprotectiomthe hole will be much smaller, and it' might or might not besuiiiciently large to disable the vessel. Andagain, if the armor is madesuiiciently thick the holewill either be too small to A'cause Inu'chvdamage, or it lwill not be made at all.

' The object of' my invention, more specifically stated, is to send highexplosives into the vitals of the ship,thus insuring her d'estructionunder all conditions.

ple form of gun from .which an ordinary projectile, carrying an"explosive charge may against torpedoes upon the ship, that is be- ,ingattacked. After the said shi or its 4protection is pierced, the shell, ocourse,

may be exploded within the vessel, thereby projectedthrough the Wat-er,Vace thereof, and are adapted destruction by exploding her boilers ormagazines. Referring to the accompanying drawing,

forming a part -of this specification; the

ligure illustrates a sectional view of the war head end of a standardtorpedo shell.

standard torpedo, and B the war head.

C represents the ordinary disk closing the airiiask, and D a flangedring in the end of the war head. i i

E represents a cap screwed into the war disabling her machinery, orcausing her A designates the shell or air flask of a4 head, as usual,and F represents small plugs passing through the cap t" H represents thebarrel of av gun, which is preferably rifled and screwed into the disk Cby means of a wrench or other tool engaging the holes G inthe'endthereof.

1 lrepresents any suitable closure of the breech of the barrel H, and Kany'standard fuse fitted into the same. l

J represents a suitable charge of powder,

and L a suitable armor iercing or other projectile of' standard ma e, Mrepresents a standard fuse which may be a suitable time fuse, or adelayed action percussion fuse, and

is preferably located in the base of vsaid projectile, andA N -anexplosive charge for the projectile.

O represents the riflingin thev gun or bar-= relH.

Thegun H of such weight as to not materially affect the ballistics ofthe torpedo shell vor to maf.

terially change the center ofgravity of the saine, as determined 'forordinary firing. This result is materially aided by omitting theexplosive charge ordinarily carried in the war head. The-'contour of thetorpedo being not changed in any sense, nor its weight or center ofgravity in any materlal sense, it follows that upon tiring the same 85and projectile L are chosen" from its tube it will behave precisely asif it did not carry my improvement. ln other words, 1t can be fired justas accurately with my improvement as without it.

On the otherI hand, Vsince my shellL will 4 ierce armor precisely thesame whether it 1s fired from my un or not, if the torpedo strikes thevessel T ani 'sureto penetrate its side or bottoni. "That is to sa inthis device I have no experiment-nl eatures to give the necessaryvelocity tothe shell L to penetrate the object against which the torpedostrikes. Upon striking this object the shell L penetrates the same andexplodes upon the inside of the vessel in the well known manner, Vandthereby creates a destructive effect much greater than could possibly bethe case were only a small hole,

or none at all, blown into the vessel by an ordinary torpedo.

It will thus exceedingly simple, is certain in operation, and can bekapplied to standard torpedoes -by involving only slight changes. Inas-- sembling the parts,` all that is necessary to do is to 'load theshell into the barrel H, place the chargedv on top the same, screw inthe breech plug L, and then screw the loaded gun into the disk C untilit occupies the position shown in the ligure.

The small Aplugs F are for the purpose of allowing air to escape whenthe nose of the torpedo strikes the vessel, and is crushed in. lheapparatus, of course, is designed to be used only once, and thereforethe barrel l-l does not have to be loaded but once.

In all cases, however, it is essentialfthatA my projectile be givensufficient- 4velocity before .leaving the gun to penetrate the shipsside, or other target, and to this end I have made the barrel ofthe gunlonger4 than the projectile used, and have employed the cap E to excludewater from said barrel. That is to say, if the barrel H were shorterthan the projectile, then upon impact, the explosive force of the chargeJ, would act on the 4projectile more like a pressure driving a wedge, orlike a blow on the same. In

such case, the projectile being in actual contact with the ship, orother tar et, could not penetrate anything like so eeply as it would,were it hurled against the ship with an accelerated velocity. Thenagain,

if thevcap E weie removed and water al.

lowed to enter the 'barrel Hbefore firing, the projectile would beforced against the water in contact therewithf so suddenly, that owingto the very high resistance water offers to such sudden displacements,the velocity of the projectile, and therefore its penetrating powers,would be very greatly reduced. In fact, under either-of suchconditions,unless special means are provided the resistance to the forward movemento the projectile would be so great, that the force of theexplosion wouldexpend itself, not in driving thel projectile forward, but

lwhen the explosion occurs,

be seen that my invention in blowing up the breech portion of the gunand in destroying the forward end of the torpedo shell.

jectile being longer than the gun barrel,

and thereforeprotruding therefrom. For,` when its nose strikes the sideof the vessel,

the whole energy possessed by the torpedo shell, weighing perhaps 2000pounds, and which would be moving at a considerable velocity, tends tohold the said nosefirinly against the ships side. This energy,therefore, serves to prevent the torpedo shell from going backward,vents the projectile from going forward, and the result is a bursting ofthegun, without accom plisliing any penetration to speak of. i Byprovidingr the air space 1n front of the pro jectile, siown in thedrawings, however, and byproviding the cap E to excludethe water, I o\'erconie both of these most serious objections.- Forair is suificientlycompressible to admit of a considerable velocity bef ing attained by theprojectile before it leaves the gun, and the small plugs F, when crushedin, furthermore facilitate its escape along with the powder gases thatprecede the projectile. The result is the projectile attains aconsiderable velocity before it leaves the gun,r and is thereby enabledto penetrate the ships side. j

I do not limit myself to any form of gun, projectile, fuse or'means ofattaching the gun to the torpedoes, nor 'do I limit my gun to vamoving'torpedo, since the same may be applied to a submarine mine Havingnow described myinvention,what I claim and desire to secureby LettersPatent is v In a torpedo, `the combination with the shell thereof, ofagun barrel fixed to the same adapted to lire a projectile therefrom,and means formin a ixed and rigid part of said shell adapte to excludewater from said barrel, substantially as described.

2. In a torpedo-the combination with the bodythereof adapted to movethrough the water, of a gun carried by the same and adapted to fire aprojectile therefrom,and means attached to fixed and rigid with saidbody for excluding water from said gun1 substantiallyas described, d

3, In a torpedo, the combination with the shell 'thereof adapted to befired from a tube, of a gun barrel carried by said .shell and Vadaptedto fire a (projectile ltherefrom and fixed means rigi ly attached tosait shell for excluding water from said gun bar rel, substantially asdescribed. l 4; In a torpedo, the combination with tln shell thereofproperly proportioned to en able the same to be fired with accuracy frona .torpedov tube, of a gun carried by sai( shell adapted to fire aprojectile therefrom Ttliis action would bev greatly aggravated in thecase of the prowhile the ship prc and a screw -cap attached to saidshellfor excluding-Water from said gun, substantially as described. v

5. In a torpedo, the combination with the by, acharge gun barrel, andlterminating 'short of the body thereof, of a gun barrel carried thereandprojectile carried bythe nose of the torpedo a distance suflicient toenable the projectile to acquire a considerable velocity before leavingthe torpedo, and means for exploding said charge and firing theprojectileupon the impact of the said torpedo upon the target attacked,substanbody thereof fuse will ignite the charge and the pro'ectile andprovided with lli will attain a considerable velocity be oreit leavesthe torpedo, substantially* as described.

7. In a torpedo, the combination With the body tl1e1'eof, -of a gunfixed in said body a percussion fuse, a propelling charge, a shellprovided with a burst-V lng charge and aV fuse in said shell, and meansto exclude wa er from said gun, sul stantially as described.

8. In a torpedo, the 4combination with the body thereof of standard'make, of a gun fixed in said body and provided With a breech closure, afuse carried by saidl gun, a propelling charge, a` lprojectile having abursting charge, a fuse carried by said proand leaving a spacebetween4jectile, and means-,to 'exclude'waterfrom the same, substantially 'asdescribed.v 5 9. In a tor edo, the combination with the body thereofp vfixed in said body and provided with a breech closure,

" the body thereof of standard make and proof standard make, of agunvidedwith a War head having its explosive charge removed, of a breechloading gun located entirely Within said -War head and provided with apercussion fuse and a pro.- pelling charge, and a standard shellprovided -Withan explosiveeharge .and a cussion f-use locatedin saidgun, the comv bined Weights of said gun and shell being so chosen anddistributed asv to not alter the original ballistics of said standardtorpedo, whereby upon impact of said torpedo th/e fuse in the gun Willignite the propelling charge and the shell will attain 'considerablevelocity before leaving the gun and CLELAND DAVIS.

Witnesses:

`l lrnaNK-A. HARR1soN WlLLIAM F.. POWELL;

materially l will. explode after passing through the ves# l

